Alternatives to Mac App Store??

Except Mac App Store, any popular websites you would go to find Mac Apps? Download.com maybe?
Since I don't want to rely on Mac App Store too much.. hope to find other popular places to promote my Mac apps.

Your question, as usual, is a bit vague. Please give more detail, so that members on this board can give you a useful answer. Your current question is somewhat of a fishing expedition.

I just found one today: https://www.macupdate.com/
I mean if I want to market my apps outside of Mac App Store, any websites are popular? So I can submit my apps to there or spending some money to marketing it there.

I mean if I want to market my apps outside of Mac App Store, any websites are popular?

No, not really. All the download directories pretty much became ghost towns (traffic wise) once the Mac App Store started. We submit our software to those sites but the traffic they send is totally irrelevant. (5 or so visits/day).

We also tried their paid promotion services - absolutely not worth the money.

I'm afraid you will have to promote your app on niche-relevant sites or do SEO/SEM or Facebook/twitter (if your intended users are there).

Getting your Mac app infront of users who are not in the Mac App Store is the hardest part nowadays really.

I mean if I want to market my apps outside of Mac App Store, any websites are popular?

No, not really. All the download directories pretty much became ghost towns (traffic wise) once the Mac App Store started. We submit our software to those sites but the traffic they send is totally irrelevant. (5 or so visits/day).

We also tried their paid promotion services - absolutely not worth the money.

I'm afraid you will have to promote your app on niche-relevant sites or do SEO/SEM or Facebook/twitter (if your intended users are there).

Getting your Mac app infront of users who are not in the Mac App Store is the hardest part nowadays really.

You're not stuck with anything. The choice is yours as to what you want to do. Problem is getting the results you want. So, start your own website, that pushes your apps. Figure out a way to get traffic to that site. Link it to the app store. And if you can do that, and have a compelling product to sell, you will make money. It's not easy, but at the very least, you're not "stuck with the Mac App Store".

@dev666999 is so right. You're not stuck with it. So many ways to promote your app. What have you done so far? What worked and what didn't work? As @voidzone points out, there's no reason to use sites like https://www.macupdate.com/ as the business logic for their existence almost evaporated after the opening of the Mac app store.

@dev666999 is so right. You're not stuck with it. So many ways to promote your app. What have you done so far? What worked and what didn't work? As @voidzone points out, there's no reason to use sites like https://www.macupdate.com/ as the business logic for their existence almost evaporated after the opening of the Mac app store.

Yeah, you want your software to get reviewed. Not because the review would generate much traffic - but because you can use the review as 'social proof' on your product page. Sticking a "4.5 Macworld" rating next to your buy button will boost your conversion rate.

Now how you get them to review your app is a completely different story. But I think it's easier for new Mac apps because there's not so many of them.

And as apppicker.com said: The chance of success is 0 if you don't try.

Yeah, you want your software to get reviewed. Not because the review would generate much traffic - but because you can use the review as 'social proof' on your product page. Sticking a "4.5 Macworld" rating next to your buy button will boost your conversion rate.

Now how you get them to review your app is a completely different story. But I think it's easier for new Mac apps because there's not so many of them.

And as apppicker.com said: The chance of success is 0 if you don't try.

So my question is how can we generate traffic except Mac App Store? Does it mean we have to rely on Mac App Store for mac apps?

Yeah, you want your software to get reviewed. Not because the review would generate much traffic - but because you can use the review as 'social proof' on your product page. Sticking a "4.5 Macworld" rating next to your buy button will boost your conversion rate.

Now how you get them to review your app is a completely different story. But I think it's easier for new Mac apps because there's not so many of them.

And as apppicker.com said: The chance of success is 0 if you don't try.

So my question is how can we generate traffic except Mac App Store? Does it mean we have to rely on Mac App Store for mac apps?

You don't need to rely on Mac store at all. Indeed, relying on the Mac store or Appstore is one of the main reasons developers/apps don't succeed as well as they should.

There are 3 basic categories for generating traffic. 1) Own it 2) Earn it and 3) Pay for it.

1) Owning it means actively creating and promoting funnels and channels that will lead to exposure and resulting downloads. Social media, a website that you use to promote your app, SEO techniques to rank your website in related searches.

2) Earning it means making an app good enough that other people will promote purely because it's interesting for their own social media followers or visitors to their blogs etc. Of course they would need to find out about your app so write to them. This is essentially what you will try to do with the 3 Mac blogs above. If you get reviewed then make a big banner on your website and mention it on your app details page. As @voidzone points out, this "validation" would increase conversions.

3) Paying for it would mean advertising either by adwords, banner advertising on relevant websites, advertising on relevant apps etc.

apppicker.com top 10 App review site where developers can post videos, place promo codes and announce apps on sale and gone free.